Horse racing tips: James Boyle's best bets for Friday

Horse racing tips today:

• 15:05 Newcastle – Balhambar – 1pt @ 11/1 with Bet365
• 15:40 Newcastle – Brooklyn Nine Nine – 1pt @ 7/2 with William Hill

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing meeting at Newcastle with two selections now online.

As always, you’ll find up-to-date odds at the bookmakers, but our tipster’s predictions are researched early in the day and those prices could soon be moved in by the betting public. 

Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing, but check out today's racecards for all the latest movements. 

15:05 Newcastle – Balhambar – 1pt @ 11/1

Balhambar has shown ability during his handicap attempts whilst looking like he’s not good enough to cope with a mark in the 80’s. That could well be the case but he now steps up to two-miles for the first time and it’s possible we’ll get to see what he’s actually capable of doing now.

He has looked too slow for a mile-and-a-half on three occasions and the one time he got to try out 1m 6f, they crawled along in a small field and sprinted away from him. A more thorough test is what he’s after and I’m very interested in how he can perform as a stayer.

Two weeks ago, on debut for Michael Bell, he shaped well enough at Kempton. The trip and lack of pace were his undoing but, under tender handling, he ran the final furlong quicker than most. He should sharpen up for that spin and hopefully will prove he’s up to this level.

15:40 Newcastle – Brooklyn Nine Nine – 1pt @ 7/2

Brooklyn Nine Nine caught the eye of almost anyone who watched his last race, flashing home over 5f at York to finish fourth of the 17 runners. The draw was no good to him, he sat back in the group on his side and got nothing like a clear run at things when building up a head of steam.

Despite all of that, he passed the majority of the field on his run to the line and I can’t see how he won’t build on that soon. He’s kept to the 5f trip but will appreciate this stiffer track, whilst he did win his novice here so shouldn’t mind the switch to the All-Weather.

This isn’t a bad race for the grade and some talented horses line up in opposition, but most are on the exposed side of the fence and he does have the scope to get better yet. Running fresh isn’t a problem for him either and with a smoother journey mid-race, he must be a big player.

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